Friday, July 18, 2008

A pox on flacks’ flak

When is a billboard like spam e-mail? When it exploits suffering, danger and valor to make a cheap political point.

There probably isn’t a person in America who hasn’t received a slew of frantic e-mails claiming that the message is something that you won’t see in the mainstream media. Usually they come from someone you know, with the message buried under a ton of forwards as people blindly obeyed the direction to “send this to everyone you know.”

A lot of these e-mails deal with this or that political candidate’s supposedly secret pasts, or plans for our future. Trashing a politician’s reputation – a contradictory phrase – is an art form. I figure they can defend themselves or not, as they choose.

But what has come to bother me in recent months has been the many, many e-mails about our military and their often-impossible task of trying to fight the bad guys while not alienating the people they hope to help – or the folks back home.

What I see in these and similar messages is not just some kind of “Wake Up, America!” prophesying. If the emails contained just the story, with a phrase like, “I thought you would find this story interesting, moving, inspiring, etc.” – I’d give them a pass on that.

Instead, what I see is someone’s calculated exploitation of heroism and sacrifice. That bit about “you won’t see this on CBS or in the New York Times [so I will show it to you]” smacks less of patriotism than a pathetic need to stand in the light of someone else’s glory.

I concede that sometimes the e-mails are right; few if any of the mainstream media have picked up a given story. Often, they’re wrong. Whoever originated – or later on tinkered with – the e-mail to include their own claim to fame was either too sure of their own inbred prejudices to actually check or, more likely, didn’t care if they were wrong.

They had a point to make, a need to feel like they were important and had counted coup against the machine. They’d waved a finger at the establishment. They didn’t actually bother to do something possibly more productive – to write to CBS or the Times, “Hey, doofus – whatsa matter with you? This is a great story, and you didn’t cover it. No wonder nobody watches/reads you anymore.”

A friend sent me such an e-mail recently, and I responded – in much fewer words – to the effect of what I’ve posted here. It was late and I was tired, and I reacted like Howard Beale in “Network”

I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore – like this billboard.

2 comments:

I personally believe most of the people who foward military sentiment do so because of their absolute frustration with the media bias. It seems these days our media wished Americans were less...how do I say it...American. I knew of several who personally contacted the media and were told in no uncertain terms that they didn't really care what "rednecks" had to say. The media has decided that those who paid for their freedom with their lives do not deserve their support or respect or MOST IMPORTANT their coverage in anything less than an unflattering light.

Meanwhile, the rest of us who no longer have a voice in the popular media have resorted to other means of communication and hence the forwards.

When is a billboard like spam e-mail? When it exploits suffering, danger and valor to make a cheap political point.

I have to disagree that this is like spam. The person who has gone out of their way and spent their money to make a point that they believe in is completely different than someone mass emailing their male enhancement or mortgage services.

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The Land Line Media Blog gives you an insider's look at the trucking industry and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told through the stories, anecdotes and opinions of the Land Line Magazine staff.